âEvery synthesis becomes a new thesis, which becomes the target of a new antithesis.â âThis antithesis found its synthesis in Stoicism, the philosophy of both master and slaveâ¦ and so on.â âIt is also to be noted that the dialectical process is not simply from thesis and antithesis to final synthesis; it is an eternal, open-ended spiral of development.â
By the time of the American Revolution, settlers were exporting 66 million pounds of rice a year. Indigo became South Carolinaâs second most important early crop. Indigo production merged nicely with rice production on many plantations. But when that market dried up, planters shifted to cotton.
But the cotton gin also resulted in the expansion of slavery in the South. Because cotton is a labor-intensive crop, the spread of cultivation deepened and broadened the region's dependence on slave labor. While southern planters would reap great profits as a result of his invention, Whitney was less fortunate.